This week, new import flat steel offers have been made to Turkey, at unchanged prices as compared to the previous month. As a result, the current downward pressure on Turkish producers’ hot rolled coil (HRC) prices, which were already considered to be on the high side, has increased. Turkish steel producers have maintained their domestic prices unchanged over the past week at $540-570/mt ex-works. However, buyers are waiting for discounts and are postponing their bookings due to the political and economic uncertainties in Turkey, resulting in weak demand in the domestic market.
Meanwhile, in the local Turkish HRC spot market, traders’ HRC and HR pickled and oiled coil prices have remained unchanged week on week, while demand is very weak. Following the significant recovery of the Turkish lira against the US dollar today, January 12, after its sharp weakening in previous days, buyers and sellers appear to be postponing transaction activities amid the exchange rate fluctuations, causing trading activity in the market to nearly grind to a halt. Market players state that cash flow problems in the market also still exist.
The domestic sales prices of traders for local and imported hot rolled flat steel products in the Eregli and Gebze regions of Turkey are as follows: